This was the first outing of the season for HBU’s Under 15 team. This is a newly constructed team with 2 players just out of Under 13 and the remainder still in the younger age-group and Amelia Parkinson-Wellard and Ishen Kiff making their league debuts.

The first game saw HBU against an inexperienced Colchester team with HBU running out winners 11-0. Goals were scored regularly in both halves with some good performances and Ishen making his first appearance in goal for the second half. The whole squad played and contributed to the scoreline and it was a good start. (more…)

Herne Bay United had their first home game in the national premier league against Letchworth on Sunday morning. United coming straight off a 21-2 win in their first game of the season last week were confident of victory. Letchworth however had different ideas and were not going to be intimidated. United went into the game making 2 changes from the previous week, Joie Singleton replaced Joel Defigueredo and Dan Barton replaced Dave Garlick.

United started slowly, Letchworth were solid in defence and despite United dominating possession they could not find a way through their opponents. Letchworth struggled to keep the ball in attack but were happy to keep soaking up the limited pressure United applied. It was a game where both defences were dominating. With 13 minutes remaining in the half United’s Brendan Barker scored from close range to put United in front 1-0. This should have been the catalyst needed to kick start united into stepping up the pressure. United though were stuck in 2nd gear and it was Letchworth who stepped their game up. With 4 minutes left in the half Letchworth captain Andrew Allen scored to tie the game at 1-1. The visitors sensed that an upset was on the cards. United were misfiring in attack, and Letchworth’s keeper Ben Howes was equal to everything United could throw at him. 30 seconds later Letchworth capitalised again when veteran striker Nigel Allen robbed Barker of the ball on the halfway line, sprinted to the edge of penalty and rifling the ball home past a helpless united keeper to put the visitors 1-2 ahead, United could not respond and the score remained 1-2 at halftime.

United were in danger of losing the game, and they came out for the 2nd half determined to get back on track. Straight from the whistle they went after Letchworth and were rewarded with a string of chances, a combination of poor finishing and some fines saves from the Letchworth keeper denied them the goal that would bring them level. Then with 19 minutes left in the game Letchworth heaped more misery on United when Stuart Langley’s long range effort took a wicked deflection off Neil Austin before finding the bottom corner of the net to put United 1-3 behind. The home side had to respond otherwise the game would be lost. Within 30 seconds United’s Barker scored his 2nd of the game to make it 2-3. It was now a case of whether Letchworth could withstand United pressure for the rest of the game. They held out for another 6 minutes but with 12 minutes remaining Barker scored his 3rd to tie the game. Within a minutes he scored his 4th to put United in front 4-3. United were still missing chance after the chance and could relax until Joe Singleton scored with an excellent flick shot into the top corner to make it 5-3 with 5 minutes to go. Barker finished the scoring with his 5th and United’s 6th with 31 seconds left in the game to make the final score HBU 6 v 3 Letchworth.

After the game United striker Brendan Barker said: “We were not good today. Our finishing was terrible. Credit to Letchworth they were very solid, and a hard team to beat. It was a Sunday morning performance from us. We struggled to get going the whole game. It was a wake up call for us. We did not play with the intensity required. That said we won the game and whilst we know we need to improve a win is a win. On a personal note I am happy to score 5 goals.”

Letchworth veteran striker Nigel Allen said: “We pushed United all the way, unfortunately for us we could not sustain the level required for the whole game. United didn’t let up for the whole game, and in the last 10 minutes tiredness got the better of us. We pushed them all the way though, and we know if we can keep playing like this we can have our best season for some years.”

HBU coach Phil mcvey said: “We were so far off the level of performance required. We were one paced, our finishing was unbelievably bad. We had at least 80% of the possession and could not make it count. Hopefully this will act as a wake up call to the squad. We need to put on a performance every game we play. Credit to Letchworth they pushed us all the way. We need to improve, we have 2 matches this weekend, against bury away and Manchester at home. Every game we play this season is a must win game.”

Herne Bay United started their national premier league campaign against local rivals RHC Invicta on Saturday night. It was the first premier league game ever to be played at the new arena following the closure of the pier. (more…)

20 years ago, Lichtstad used to be a regular trip for HBU’s young teams and it was good to renew our friendship. Since our last visit the rink now has a roof but was still open to the elements on two bitterly cold days. (more…)

Member of HBU’s senior squad travelled to St Omer at the weekend for a pre-season tournament. United travelled with 8 players and 2 keepers. (A number of players were missing due to other commitments including ND1 tournament in Soham).

In addition to the Premier League team, HBU have also entered a side in National Division 1. The first tournament of the year took place in Soham where a new look UTD team would face Ely, Maidstone and Sheffield.

This was the first time that this UTD team had played together with only a handful of training sessions as preparation and the squad a mixture of youth and experience. (more…)

HBU’s under 11s team travelled to Kings Lynn on Saturday 8 October for their first Eastern Counties Division 1 matches.

The team has had a month training but has had no match experience as a unit. This showed when they got off to a very shaky start by quickly going 2 goals down against Grimsby. This shocked the players into life and they brought the score back to 2-2 by half time with some determined individual play. The team was also finding its feet in defence which provided a platform for 3 more goals in the second half without reply giving HBU a 5-2 win at full time.

Herne Bay United are happy to announce and number of renewed support this season from Local Businesses as well as a number of New ones.

This Season for Senior home matches Premier League and National Cup as well as home and away European matches we will be awarding one HBU team member The Kings Fish Bar Man of the Match, We will also be awarding a Man of the Tournament/Match for Under 13’s E.C and National Championship/Cup games. The player will be awarded a free meal and drink at the Kings Rd Fish Bar Herne Bay.

HBU will also be offering Club teams and members as well as visiting Premier League Teams complimentary food provided by the Golf Driving range on Bullockstone Rd opposite the Arena.

All Club members welcome, approximate numbers must be provided prior to the match day and drinks have to be purchased and children must be accompanied by an adult.

Broadway Garage has also given a once a month raffle prize to our social skating session of a free MOT. This will begin shortly.

HBU has also be given the support for 2011/2012 advertising on the Arena Barriers by: